Celestia v1.6 improvements --> incompatible URLs
Posted: 22.07.2008, 12:22
A heads-up to those who include lots of URLs with their addons:
Celestia v1.6 (currently available by building from source code) includes substantial improvements in two areas which may cause incompatibilities for some older URLs.
1. CustomRotations in solarsys.ssc
Celestia v1.6 implements CustomRotations for most planets and many moons, more accurately representing their orientations. This means that the surfaces of those bodies will have shifted when compared to their surfaces as seen in Celestia v1.5.1 and before. For example, the improvement in the Earth's rotation has moved the position of Mount Palomar by about 71km as of today's date.
2. Hipparcos catalog 2007 used for stars.dat
ESA has released an improved version of the Hipparcos catalog of stellar positions. The errors in the positions of many stars have improved substantially, causing revisions in their nominal distances. This means that many stars are in different positions as seen in Celestia v1.6 when compared to Celestia v1.5.1 and before. Sorry, I don't have an example. The star I cared about, Tau Ceti, didn't move.
The revised versions of solarsys.ssc and stars.dat are available on SourceForge at http://celestia.svn.sourceforge.net/vie ... stia/data/
The revised stars.dat should work with Celestia v1.5.1
The revised version of solarsys.ssc cannot.
Celestia v1.6 (currently available by building from source code) includes substantial improvements in two areas which may cause incompatibilities for some older URLs.
1. CustomRotations in solarsys.ssc
Celestia v1.6 implements CustomRotations for most planets and many moons, more accurately representing their orientations. This means that the surfaces of those bodies will have shifted when compared to their surfaces as seen in Celestia v1.5.1 and before. For example, the improvement in the Earth's rotation has moved the position of Mount Palomar by about 71km as of today's date.
2. Hipparcos catalog 2007 used for stars.dat
ESA has released an improved version of the Hipparcos catalog of stellar positions. The errors in the positions of many stars have improved substantially, causing revisions in their nominal distances. This means that many stars are in different positions as seen in Celestia v1.6 when compared to Celestia v1.5.1 and before. Sorry, I don't have an example. The star I cared about, Tau Ceti, didn't move.
The revised versions of solarsys.ssc and stars.dat are available on SourceForge at http://celestia.svn.sourceforge.net/vie ... stia/data/
The revised stars.dat should work with Celestia v1.5.1
The revised version of solarsys.ssc cannot.
